1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a PRT (personal rapid transit) system allowing PRT vehicles to run along dedicated guideway networks at high speeds and, more particularly, to a computer-based PRT system utilizing both course reservation and branch stop technologies and having tunnel-type dedicated guideways located aboveground, groundlevel or underground and being computer-controlled, thus allowing small-sized and standardized PRT vehicles to run along the guideways at high speeds without having any congestion delays and thereby radically solving traffic congestion in a large metropolitan region.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, traditional public transit systems, such as subways and light electric railways running on fixed schedule, are problematic in that they require long station wait times and are less likely to allow passengers to reach their destinations through shortest courses. Another problem experienced in such public transit systems is that the systems force passengers to make a long distance walk so as to transfer from a train to another train at a transfer station, thus being inconvenient to the passengers, especially to people who transfer. In the above transit systems, each train has to be stopped at every station to debark/embark passengers at the stations, thus being delayed and time-consuming. A further problem of the traditional transit systems resides in that a plurality of trains, with a fixed-passenger carrying capacity, require running along the rails regardless of peak or off-peak hours. Therefore, the trains are unoccupied with passengers during off-peak hours and are highly crowded with passengers during peak hours, thus being run inefficiently. Such transit systems also increase construction costs and require a lengthy period of construction time, causing congestion of urban traffic to become worse.
In an effort to overcome the problems experienced in such traditional public transit systems, several types of automated people mover (APM) systems and personal rapid transit (PRT) systems, such as PRT 2000 and Skycar, have been proposed and feasibly tested in some counties of the world. However, such typical APM or PRT systems are problematic in that they are limited in their passenger carrying capacities in comparison with the traditional public transit systems and cause congestion of urban traffic during rush hour. Such known APM or PRT systems utilize an off-line stop technology and have series platforms, thus reducing transit capacity. The above APM or PRT systems do not allow APM or PRT vehicles to change their lanes on the guideways and so each of the APM or PRT vehicles has to run along a dedicated and fixed lane and this remarkably reduces the transit capacity. In addition, the guideways of the above systems consist of one-way paths, thereby forcing vehicles on the guideways to make detours prior to reaching destinations. A further problem experienced in the above APM or PRT systems is that they fail to provide sufficient vehicle storage areas due to both large-sized vehicles and the structural limit of stations.